Academic diamonds in the rough:Sharon Broussard

The Plain Dealer: David I. AndersenCreating a school district of readers and learners means high expectations for everyone from the principal to students. William Foster Elementary School in Garfield Heights City Schools and other effective urban schools are proving that poor students can learn if adults are willing to change the way they teach and the culture of the school.

There's one conversation that forthright Eric Gordon, CEO of the Cleveland schools, told me recently that he won't engage in.

A true believer in Cleveland's students, he won't get into arguments with people who say that Cleveland's kids can't learn, or that changing the adults -- adding more quality teachers, for example, as Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's reform plan strives to do, or getting rid of the worst schools -- won't make a difference as long as Cleveland's youngsters remain the same.

The skeptics, and they are numerous, question whether any school transformation plan can transform youngsters who come from poor, single-parent homes with too little support and too much chaos: Youngsters sent to school without a meal or a shower or sometimes even clean clothes, for example, or whose parents won't bother to come to the school or are ready to pick a fight if they do. Such chaotic circumstances are not true in all cases -- some Cleveland parents care deeply about their children's education -- but they exist in far too many.

To the critics, nothing can be done until Cleveland gets a new flock of middle-class families concerned about education.

What, exactly, the mayor and CEO are supposed to do in the meantime -- ask Gov. John Kasich to build more prisons, hire more police? -- is never answered. But that's exactly what giving up on Cleveland students who can learn, who want to learn, even if they have grown up in disheveled households, would mean.

So if Gordon and the mayor hope to encourage voters to pass a levy -- the mayor's next priority -- they have to be open to challenging the naysayers.

Fortunately, they have plenty of evidence on their side.

Although Cleveland's school district is in academic watch -- a D grade, according to the state -- it still has plenty of bright lights, including the John Hay School of Science and Medicine, rated excellent, and a portfolio of effective innovative schools--.

Karin Chenoweth, a writer with the Education Trust, a Washington-based nonprofit focused on quality schools for poor students, has written three books about public schools across the nation where poor students are high achievers who graduate from high school.

The main ingredients, she writes, are high expectations for students, teachers and the principal, and a dedicated staff that works together, analyzing student data so they can reteach topics students don't get. And a big dose of caring.

I saw all of that and more during a recent trip to the William Foster Elementary School in the Garfield Heights City School District. The kindergarten-through-third-grade school, named after a U.S. Marine from Garfield Heights who was killed in World War II, is heroically battling some negative trends. Foreclosures are up, about 38 percent of students migrate in and out of the district every year and 64.7 percent of the district's students are economically disadvantaged.

Money was fading fast before residents voted for a new levy in March, so the district shortened the day but gave Foster students "a double dose of reading" by cutting recess and lunch -- bag lunches are delivered to the classroom -- and increasing the time spent on reading, says Linda Reid, Garfield Heights' energetic superintendent.

Meanwhile, Foster's music and art teachers were retrained in reading-intervention skills so more adults could help work with students. It was a difficult choice, but it was the right one for this challenged school system.

Discipline got a makeover, too, a few years ago: Students are well-behaved and walk to the drinking fountain with their hands behind their backs.

Most important, the reading scores of those students who had been struggling at Foster have climbed since teachers started meeting and jointly analyzing student learning gaps, sharing teaching strategies and then reteaching subjects that students didn't understand. The school also added a new daily literacy program that focuses on reading and writing.

The new, adult-driven practices have helped Foster, which is rated excellent by the state, cut in half the number of kids who used to fall behind in reading, according to the school's recent research. The good news prompted staff to do "our happy dance," well, metaphorically, said Principal Sandy Powers.

"As a staff, we have to embrace all of our students. . . . Teachers have a shared responsibility, a shared accountability . . . to talk about where we are as professionals and what we need to do better," says Powers.

Foster staff members are now training teachers at Elmwood, Garfield Heights' other K-3 school, which is rated continuous improvement, or a C, to work more seamlessly with the same program.

Foster's collaborative teaching makes state-mandated teacher evaluations based on individual student results much trickier, however. A fair evaluation system must be created for teachers who choose this fruitful approach.

But there's no doubt that changing the culture of a school and the way teachers teach can improve outcomes for poor youngsters. William Foster points the way for Cleveland and other urban districts.

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.